Comments on: How to Wage a Dungeons and Dragons Campaign

on 8/8/2006 Ask the players questions about their PC's on a personal level before the game starts. For example, were you close with your parents, what would they think of what you have done with your life? I have found that this helps the players get into character and the quality of role-playing goes up.

on 8/8/2006 In D&D, as a PC (player character) you take on a character and assume a new identity in a new world. As DM (dungeon master), you control the world and how it applies to the PC's. One thing that you will learn as a DM is that PC's will only do what you want them to do about half the time, and the rest of the time they are trying to climb up a ladder while tightrope walking on top of a werebear who is swimming upstream a river on a floating land mass. Be prepared for the unpreparable. Learn the skills of spontaneous NPC creation, spontaneous creature encounters and especially spontaneous "You break your legs because too late you realize that jumping out of a two story inn with 80 pounds of equipment after a halfling rogue who used a rope to jump out of the same window was a huge mistake". The PC's will definitely appreciate it and it will make the DM's life a lot easier.

on 8/8/2006 Get a feel for the people who will be playing in your campaigns. Many a person adds his/her personality to the PC they are controlling and depending on the person, can be more of a disruption than a blessing, especially for newcomers to the game. Be prepared for this. Many a campaign has been soured due to unchecked "personalities" and end up turning away potential players. It is a DM's job to think of not just one PC, but the entire group. Pull the disruption to the side, explain the situation, even award experience points for staying "in-character". Unfortunately, although no DM wants to, sometimes dismissal is the only way to save a campaign. The one and only job of a DM is and always will be one thing, to make sure the PC's are having fun. After all, what's an epic story with magnificently tiled dungeons and mammoth battles waged against wizard guarded castles raining fiery death on vigilent fighters protected by divine intervention when no one wants to be there to enjoy it?

on 8/8/2006 Many a campaign has been broken due to unwise location, not in-game but as in the actual location of the players. Too much noise or activity will ruin a session. Whether using miniatures or through total imagination, the best location is taken from the name. Dungeon. A room that is quiet, semi-dark, will go uninterrupted for hours and has adequate ventilation. Even musical scores from certain video games/movies can be played during an extremely difficult battle, or a peaceful yet necessary trip to town to restock. Minimize interruption, have breaks after difficult battles(if necessary) and just enjoy the mood that has been created.

on 8/7/2006 I have discovered that making the characters while you have a general idea of the campaign's course, and then going on to do the serious plotting and such, really helps make everything clearer.

on 6/30/2006 Get a DM screen or make one yourself. Also, set up a system for initiative, so you know who goes when. Create a list of common skill check difficulties (swim, climb, jump, etc), get familiar with environment spells like web, entangle, grease, etc. This kind of preparation will help keep the game from grinding to a halt during combat and keep the PCs from annihilating all your monsters with one web spell. But like was mentioned earlier, prepare for the unexpected. Have mini side adventures, or reinforcements available if the main encounter proved too easy for the PCs. Try to keep things flowing and focus on making the game fun for everyone.

on 11/22/2005 The best campaigns I've run were when I made a very small story with a small variety of creatures, but made them seem to fit together and gave them all believable motivations. This makes it easy to set a theme that the players can really imagine, and it opens up all kinds of potential for spontaneous role playing. People are motivated by personal desires, and the most interesting creatures have some honor. The Hobbit is a perfect example of feeling "bad guys" who even display compassion at times (like the drunk troll) or the need to justify their actions (like the goblin king).

on 11/22/2005 The most important thing is the town. In my experiences people have more fun outside of the battle. It's the leading up to it that's the best. It makes things more interesting and fun if you start off your campaign with a good town setting in which everyone gets to know all of the characters. Like the mayor, king, the innkeeper, the clerics in the local churches; it makes wanting to protect or kill these people a lot more interesting and fun. Make little adventures based in the town, like protecting your new friends or doing tasks for them. Of course you're going to want to have some huge adventures that would be outside of the place you live, but you always need a place to go when you're done with the adventure. Plus, it's a lot easier to make adventures if you have a whole mad set up for your area around the town as well.

on 11/22/2005 In D&D, as a PC (player character) you take on a character and assume a new identity in a new world. As DM (dungeon master), you control the world and how it applies to the PC's. One thing that you will learn as a DM is that PC's will only do what you want them to do about half the time, and the rest of the time they are trying to climb up a ladder while tightrope walking on top of a werebear who is swimming upstream a river on a floating land mass. Be prepared for the unpreparable. Learn the skills of spontaneous NPC creation, spontaneous creature encounters and especially spontaneous "You break your legs because too late you realize that jumping out of a two story inn with 80 pounds of equipment after a halfling rogue who used a rope to jump out of the same window was a huge mistake". The PC's will definitely appreciate it and it will make the DM's life a lot easier.

on 11/22/2005 Many a campaign has been broken due to unwise location, not in-game but as in the actual location of the players. Too much noise or activity will ruin a session. Whether using miniatures or through total imagination, the best location is taken from the name. Dungeon. A room that is quiet, semi-dark, will go uninterrupted for hours and has adequate ventilation. Even musical scores from certain video games/movies can be played during an extremely difficult battle, or a peaceful yet necessary trip to town to restock. Minimize interruption, have breaks after difficult battles(if necessary) and just enjoy the mood that has been created.

on 11/22/2005 Get a feel for the people who will be playing in your campaigns. Many a person adds his/her personality to the PC they are controlling and depending on the person, can be more of a disruption than a blessing, especially for newcomers to the game. Be prepared for this. Many a campaign has been soured due to unchecked "personalities" and end up turning away potential players. It is a DM's job to think of not just one PC, but the entire group. Pull the disruption to the side, explain the situation, even award experience points for staying "in-character". Unfortunately, although no DM wants to, sometimes dismissal is the only way to save a campaign. The one and only job of a DM is and always will be one thing, to make sure the PC's are having fun. After all, what's an epic story with magnificently tiled dungeons and mammoth battles waged against wizard guarded castles raining fiery death on vigilent fighters protected by divine intervention when no one wants to be there to enjoy it?